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This is not a comfortable book. Far from giving the reader a feeling of safety by presenting him with ‘scientific’ truths, the author—often with wry humour—puts her fingers firmly and surely on trouble spots and then squeezes. One can feel that here is a penetrating eye at work which seeks out more and opinions that are psychologically unsound because they tend to discount human reality and feminine reality especially.
The opening chapter gives a brief sketch of opinions on womanhood, and an interesting spotlight on what a stereotype entails, ranging through historical times to that of modern psychology. The findings of Jung are discussed and amplified with a sure command of the author's own varied and up-to-date material. In the next chapter, on motherhood, all sorts of self-deceptions, pretentiousness and self-righteousness are revealed. No prescription or remedy is offered; the solution is rather left to the individual but an appeal is made for that understanding of the heart—woman's special gift.
Jacobi goes on to confront the idea of perfection with the Jungian concept of polarity which most fruitfully pervades the book. The ‘Zweinatur’ (double nature) of the human gender is not only discussed in terms of anima and animus but is also shown up amusingly in what the author calls ‘die Doppelsilhouette' of women, where matter-of-factness, cool functionalism in dress, strangely combines with, or sets a counterpoint to, the ‘pliable softness of feminine being’.
The rest of the book is concerned with a concise and exhaustive account of modern